2021 Mexican Grand Prix - Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Nov 05 - 07

[nacho]

The thing is you can easily fit at least four cars on that straight, if Bottas had gone left he would have opened the middle for Verstappen.

[nacho]

[Ryar]

Bottas is in tough situations not always very aware of his surroundings or limits. Or do we think he was in Hungary? I really don’t think so. Here he could have been very aggresive on Max, but it didn’t transpire. I do think checo would have taken the inside line, Mexico is easily 3 cars wide on the straight.

Bottass just seems to be getting worse by the day when it comes to wheel to wheel racing.

Imo, what he should have done, was as soon has he realized Lewis was along side, he should have slowly moved to the left to ensure less than a cars with of track was between him and the grass. Then all Lewis needs to do is ensure their is less than a cars with between himself and Bottas. That would have allowed the Mercs to basically block the entire track until well into the braking zone when it widens.

That would have put all the pressure on Max and Checo. Max has to decide if he wants to risk getting on the grass to go around the outside, or get pinched Singapore style if he decides to go between them. Checo has to decide between the marbles and also getting pinched Singapore style.Not to mention needing to worry about getting attacked from behind themselves.

The track is too wide for two cars to cover the cars behind, following with a tow. Besides, in the wet Imola start, Max took to white line to overtake Lewis on the start. He would have dared to go on the grass a bit on the left to overtake Bottas here, like Albon did in 2019. Lewis was trying to cover his inside as Checo was behind him with a tow. If both Mercedes gone to the extreme left and right, center of the track would open for both Max and Checo. One of them would have made it and in this case, it was Max.

[Rodak]

Bottas is in tough situations not always very aware of his surroundings or limits. Or do we think he was in Hungary? I really don’t think so. Here he could have been very aggresive on Max, but it didn’t transpire. I do think checo would have taken the inside line, Mexico is easily 3 cars wide on the straight.

Bottass just seems to be getting worse by the day when it comes to wheel to wheel racing.

Imo, what he should have done, was as soon has he realized Lewis was along side, he should have slowly moved to the left to ensure less than a cars with of track was between him and the grass. Then all Lewis needs to do is ensure their is less than a cars with between himself and Bottas. That would have allowed the Mercs to basically block the entire track until well into the braking zone when it widens.

That would have put all the pressure on Max and Checo. Max has to decide if he wants to risk getting on the grass to go around the outside, or get pinched Singapore style if he decides to go between them. Checo has to decide between the marbles and also getting pinched Singapore style.Not to mention needing to worry about getting attacked from behind themselves.

And here is the voice of someone who has never driven an open wheel race car in anger. Do you really think it's that easy, that one has time to think through all the permutations and decide the 'best' solution and then achieve it? Just try it in real life, not on a computer, but in actual wheel to wheel racing in a single seater. It ain't what you think. What a bunch ! I've raced FF1600, FF2000, and Atlantic and the computer armchair drivers advising are pretty amusing to read. You have no idea.....

[Michelangelo]

Maybe the whole plan was messed when he made the worst start of the three and failed to give the space Lewis needed to tuck behind and get the tow. Then all happened, he was sitting in between the two, allowing Max to pick up speed, possibly worst case for them.

[jumpingfish]

0:09 - 0:10 on the video, it seems Bottas made light move to the right, I think he didn't care about helping Ham, more about his own victory from pole. But I can be wrong

[jumpingfish]

Starting moment


Bottas looks into his rightside mirror


Moves to the right


Distance to the left line you can see

[Ryar]

Starting moment
https://i.imgur.com/DastByq.jpg

Bottas looks into his rightside mirror
https://i.imgur.com/IBkhhiv.png

Moves to the right
https://i.imgur.com/Yq2wwmt.png

Distance to the left line you can see
https://i.imgur.com/EALOCHt.jpg

He was supposed to move to the right to give a tow to Lewis, which he tried.

[jumpingfish]

Starting moment
https://i.imgur.com/DastByq.jpg

Bottas looks into his rightside mirror
https://i.imgur.com/IBkhhiv.png

Moves to the right
https://i.imgur.com/Yq2wwmt.png

Distance to the left line you can see
https://i.imgur.com/EALOCHt.jpg

He was supposed to move to the right to give a tow to Lewis, which he tried.

So how could he block Max at the same time? It seems a bit hard to give a tow for teammate on the right and block RB on the left

[etusch]

0:09 - 0:10 on the video, it seems Bottas made light move to the right, I think he didn't care about helping Ham, more about his own victory from pole. But I can be wrong

So still there is a racing driver instinct in him even it is trimmed too much.

They are blaming Bottas but I think Bottas is innocent there as tactical. Hamilton should go behind Bottas to take tow and must aim to drive into racing line before the end of the straight. Because there is very long straight very high speed and braking is key. But Hamilton( and experienced 7 time champ) tried to overtake bottas , bottas let him enter to turn first by destroying his race. That is worst objective for Bottas as racing driver. He was not in mentallity of doing his natural job, but in mentallity of letting and helping ham. he has to figure out what Ham was trying to do to allow him to do that. This is mentallity was base reason of first turn incident.
When all these thing going on verstappen was at racing line, which give him very good braking ability and best angle to take that turn.

[AMG.Tzan]

Bottas and/or Hamilton would've likely been penalised for any attempts to push Verstappen towards or even off track, given Masi published a document (document #55, Race Director's Note) explicitly reminding drivers that any attempts to hinder drivers by pushing them off the track or through any other "unusual change of direction" would be reported to the stewards.

I know that's probably unpalatable for the Mercedes fans who think a 2019 Ferrari style boxing in would've somehow kept Verstappen from winning this, but one or both Mercedes drivers being penalised likely would've just made the job a lot easier for Red Bull.

You don't need to put a driver on the grass in order to box him in.
So that argument is invalid.

See this pic?
https://i.ibb.co/RBvkPGS/Maxonboard.png

If Bottas had kept the line, Max would've had nowhere to go.
Or would have had to back off in order to switch to the dirty inside.

Wow look at that! What an idiot Bottas...

Yes Verstapen had loads of pace so even if he was 3rd after the first corner he would have been able to pass the Mercs...such was his pace advantage!

But who knows what would have happened had Bottas kept Verstapen behind! So many scenarios...maybe Ricciardo would end up hitting Max instead of Bottas for example and boy what that would mean for the championship!

Anyway...it is what it is! Onto the next one...though I can't see how Mercedes can win this!

[AriaanGert]

Bottas is in tough situations not always very aware of his surroundings or limits. Or do we think he was in Hungary? I really don’t think so. Here he could have been very aggresive on Max, but it didn’t transpire. I do think checo would have taken the inside line, Mexico is easily 3 cars wide on the straight.

Bottass just seems to be getting worse by the day when it comes to wheel to wheel racing.

Imo, what he should have done, was as soon has he realized Lewis was along side, he should have slowly moved to the left to ensure less than a cars with of track was between him and the grass. Then all Lewis needs to do is ensure their is less than a cars with between himself and Bottas. That would have allowed the Mercs to basically block the entire track until well into the braking zone when it widens.

That would have put all the pressure on Max and Checo. Max has to decide if he wants to risk getting on the grass to go around the outside, or get pinched Singapore style if he decides to go between them. Checo has to decide between the marbles and also getting pinched Singapore style.Not to mention needing to worry about getting attacked from behind themselves.

And here is the voice of someone who has never driven an open wheel race car in anger. Do you really think it's that easy, that one has time to think through all the permutations and decide the 'best' solution and then achieve it? Just try it in real life, not on a computer, but in actual wheel to wheel racing in a single seater. It ain't what you think. What a bunch of wankers. I've raced FF1600, FF2000, and Atlantic and the computer armchair drivers advising are pretty amusing to read. You have no idea.....

I agree. I was smiling at the comments. Each time I watch the start from the onboards I am impressed with the speed the chaos, the anger. You understand how intuitive those guys need to pick their lines.
Well, they will be better at it than me, but still. It is not chess. You cannot think it over several times.
I can believe that Bottas tried just that: follow a plan and think, instead of follow intuition, and that made him slow.

[Ryar]

Starting moment
https://i.imgur.com/DastByq.jpg

Bottas looks into his rightside mirror
https://i.imgur.com/IBkhhiv.png

Moves to the right
https://i.imgur.com/Yq2wwmt.png

Distance to the left line you can see
https://i.imgur.com/EALOCHt.jpg

He was supposed to move to the right to give a tow to Lewis, which he tried.

So how could he block Max at the same time? It seems a bit hard to give a tow for teammate on the right and block RB on the left

That was the expectation, from people here.

[basti313]

He was supposed to move to the right to give a tow to Lewis, which he tried.

So how could he block Max at the same time? It seems a bit hard to give a tow for teammate on the right and block RB on the left

That was the expectation, from people here.

Yes.
Clear issue is, that blocking Ver in first place means giving him a tow.

[Mogster]

He could see Lewis on the right though, and he must have known his start was poor. All he had to do was move to the left, Lewis was covering the right, but Bottas continued to move right leaving half the track available to Max.

I did think Max was going off though, didn’t everyone else?